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Showing posts from February, 2025

Review: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Review: The Circular Ruins

The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges My rating: 3 of 5 stars When is a short story, not a short story? Do you include a short story as a ‘book read’ on Goodreads, or does the collection include one book? We had a family debate on this over Christmas and concluded that if a book is worthy of a separate review, it counts as a book. I sometimes must reread Borges's short stories three or more times to understand them. In some ways, the books seem as recursive as some of the motifs included. The narrative arc, where there is one, continues to increase like a Shepard-Risset glissando (the audio illusion where the pitch of the ensemble of frequencies is ever-increasing). “The Circular Ruins” is a case in point: a mysterious meditation on creation, consciousness, and the nature of reality. Borges crafts a world where a lone dreamer attempts to bring a man into existence, only to confront the possibility that he is merely a dream. The circular ruins i...

Review: The Circular Ruins

The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Review: From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds

From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel C. Dennett My rating: 3 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Review: Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness

Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness by Hedda Hassel Mørch My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Review: Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is one of Murakami’s more challenging novels, blending magical realism with dense literary and philosophical themes. Fans of 1Q84 and Killing Commendatore will recognize the dreamlike logic, shifting realities, and mythic undertones, but this novel (which predates 1Q84) leans even further into the labyrinthine. As with many of his novels Murakami uses dual protagonists. Kafka Tamura, the runaway 15-year-old, embarks on a mythic, psychological journey, while Nakata, an elderly man who lost his intelligence in a mysterious childhood event, follows a more whimsical, fate-driven path. The two characters exist on parallel but interconnected tracks, embodying different ways of perceiving reality. Kafka struggles against his supposed fate, while Nakata drifts with the current of events, his ability to speak to cats and his detachment from conventional time making him a liminal figure. Thei...

Review: Kafka on the Shore

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews

Review: The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky My rating: 4 of 5 stars View all my reviews